1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to clips and more particularly to pin clips affixed to vertically disposed surfaces, such as bulletin, boards for providing a clamping function.
2. Description of Related Art
Historically, many fastening arrangements have been developed during the last century to provide hooking, clipping, or clamping functions which have been used to hang, hold, or close a variety of desired items. For example, clasps are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 340,831 (1886), U.S. Pat. No. 631,754 (1899) and U.S. Pat. No. 948,917 (1910); hangers in U.S. Pat. No. 1,257,406 (1918) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,947 (1989); holders in U.S. Pat. No. 1,439,138 (1922); clamps in U.S. Pat. No. 1,997,425 (1935) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,924 (1985); fasteners in U.S. Pat. No. 1,070,403 (1913) and U.S. Pat. No. 1,314,548 (1919); bag closures in U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,146 (1992); clips in U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,480 (1991) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,950,829 (1976), and retainers in U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,324 (1989). The devices disclosed in the aforementioned patents typically were designed to perform specific tasks such as to hold items from paper products to articles of clothing, from bags to cables, and from curtains to pictures, for example.
Other simple clip arrangements are illustrated more closely in the following patents. To hold paper items and the like, alternatives to the traditional paper clip have evolved, such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,416 issued to Ohminato et al. which discloses a paper clip having an arched moveable member, a bottom plate and a connector plate therebetween all formed as one piece. Another clip device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No 5,152,034 entitled Click-clip which clip is extruded of synthetic resin material comprising relatively stiff wing portions connected by a living hinge wherein each wing portion has a foot portion with a hook portion at the end thereof for mutual interlocking. This clip is adapted for closing, reopening and reclosing respectively the edges of a bag, which bag is made from plastic film or similar material having a single thickness varying between about 0.01 and 1 mm. A guard ring clip disclosed in a patent issued to Moretti namely, U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,481 consists of two half collars of a hard elastic plastic material integrally joined by a hinge strap at one end and having interlocking hooks at their free ends to form a closed ring that tightly encloses a cable. A clip disclosed in U.K. Patent Application GB 2,066,890 which provides a spring clip for attachment to a jacket to hold an identification tag or card. This clip has two parts a base or housing 11 with a stud for attachment to a supporting surface such as a plastic badge and a trigger part 20 secured in the housing and biased against a curved jaw portion of the housing by spring arm 16 also formed integrally with the housing.
With all these fastening arrangements, there has yet to be a simple alternative to traditional thumb tack for securing items to a bulletin board or the like. Thumb tacks undersireably poke holes in the item to be "pegged up" and often result in tearing of the item which is typically a piece paper or the like. Thumb tacks are also easily dislodged from a bulletin board resulting in the paper item falling to the ground and the thumb tack ending up in a location where it could possibly cause injury to an unsuspecting passerby. It would be an advancement to the art to have a pin clip arrangement for securely suspending paper items and the like, in a more reliable manner.